In less than a week, most of you will be with various family members...hopefully enjoying each others company, and indulging in a massive amount of food. I'll be completely honest, up until I got married....I really enjoyed Thanksgiving. Now, we have to have the conversation (argument), about where we're going to go? How long are we going to be there? What are we going to take? What are we going to do afterwards? It's a production. I almost miss the days when I had to work on Thanksgiving. Which is sad, because the holidays are supposed to be about enjoying each others company, getting away from the grind....and just taking a break from it all. I don't know about you people, but I now dread the holidays. I tell you what my dream scenario would be, as far as how the holiday season should go. Wake up on Thanksgiving day, around 10:30 in the am. Have a quick breakfast...nothing heavy...maybe some toast. Then take a shower and get dressed, because company will be coming to our house for dinner around noon. I greet several members of our family, and take their jackets as they arrive. We have a bountiful dinner and watch some football. Then everyone promptly leaves, around 1:30 pm, and I take an hour nap. Keep in mind, all the while my wife is doing cleanup duty, and watching the kids. After the nap, I give my wife a hand with the rest of the cleanup, make myself a snack, and play outside with the kids. Because, the temperature is a beautiful 72 degrees, on this Thanksgiving day. Then around 8:00 pm, my wife puts the kids down for the night, and we have some friends show up, for a modest Thanksgiving dinner. We visit, maybe play some marbles, and have a few cocktails. Then our friends find their way to the door around 10:00 pm, and I play XBOX until midnight. My wife has been in bed for about an hour at this point....so that way, she can watch whatever she likes in the bedroom and I don't have to hear her complain about what I'm doing in the living room. Then a little after midnight, after I have done all I need to do to get myself ready for bed, I turn it in for the night.
Now, is that so bad to ask for? Sadly, here's how I see it all playing out. I wake up Thanksgiving day, around 6:00 in the am. I get the baby dressed, diaper changed, and feed him. My wife is on toddler duty, she gets him dressed and breakfast made. This brings us up to about 8:00 am. Now, I have to hear my stepson wine about being bored, so I suggest he goes outside to play. He does. I am still on baby duty, while my wife makes whatever dish she has settled on, to bring to her Grandmother's house in Neosho. The Grandmother who lives on a farm, and has a gravel drive up to her house, that is half mountain, half volcano. Which is pretty much a flat tire waiting to happen, but whatever....I would rather go there, than listen to my wife gripe. My wife finally finishes up around 11:00 am, and we get the kids together and leave our house in Carl Junction. We make it to the farm around 11:45 am. The toddler gets out and starts to play with his cousins, who have been there for about an hour already. They have been there early, because they live in Neosho, and got the message from the host about being there early. We did not. So after everyone gets settled and introductions/greetings have been completed it's about 1:00 pm. We sit down, wherever we can find a spot and eat. After dinner, it's about 2:00 pm. I have to listen to my wifes family complain about whatever situation, they are dealing with now....health, kids, job, take your pick. I do my best to engage them. Finally around 3:30 pm, we head back to our house. I have a massive headache. We get home, I take some Tylenol. It's about 4:15 pm. We have invited some friends over, much to my dismay. They show up and we have a small early dinner. Just enough to keep the bloat going. They are annoyed with the stepson, who is bouncing off the walls because since he's been up he's been on a steady diet of sweets and soda. All of our friends also don't have any kids he can play with that are his age, so he thinks it's a good idea to entertain our guests. His act gets old, now I am forced with a decision to make. Do I crack down on his behavior, or let him get all this energy out of his system, to the chagrin of our guests? I choose the latter, because I don't want to argue with my wife.
After this dog and pony show gets over, it's about 7:00 pm. At this point, I am shot. I do my best to help my wife with kid duty, and cleanup duty. Our guests have been gone for about an hour, and I don't foresee them coming back anytime soon. We clean up the house until we run out of energy, and then turn it in after we put the kids to bed. Kids in bed by 8:30 pm. Us about 9:30 pm.
Good times, good times.
Then comes Black Friday, and that's a whole other story in itself.
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